Audrey Can't Die

Indie / Rock

Billerica, MA

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About

"When I see Audrey Can't Die, I want to outdo them." Out of all the quotes from our interview, that was one the writer decided to run with. I shook my head and groaned upon reading it, wondering if the Audrey members were somewhere across town taking some kind of offense to it.

I don't remember the specifics, as we were buzzed by the time the interviewer arrived at our practice space. But it went something like this...

My other band was being interviewed about an explosion of bands that were suddenly emerging from within the borders of our ho-hum, run-of-the-mill suburban town. There were a lot of them playing out in the area at that time, and I think she could tell by our cockiness that we felt we were ahead of the rest of the class, and she was correct. Perhaps she smelled blood in the water, or wanted to stir the pot. "Is there any kind of competition, or rivalry between the bands?" she asked.

In my head I went through all the bands that frequented our rock microcosm, and perhaps I was more honest about it than I'd have liked, as cockiness and conceit were a well established facet of our band at that time. I thought about it for a few seconds and one band worked their way into my response. "When I see Audrey Can't Die, I want to outdo them."

You see, in our opinions, we had the Lowell music scene all wrapped up. Game. Set. Match. But then...

...then there was Rob and his cohorts. We never even saw them coming. With our afros and beards and weird clothes, our band looked like your typical stoners that you'd see falling out of the side door of a van, smoke fuming out like a gang of ghosts, and dissipating into the sky.

Audrey Can't Die however, looked like any 4 dudes you'd see waiting in line at Dairy Queen. And while Rob looked like he wasn't a day over 16, the balance of maturity and simplicity of his songs, the frequency of their hooks, and the way the rest of Audrey executed them, let you know otherwise. If for some reason you weren't listening, or you missed the show and still thought he might be 16, the way they drank and sweat beer on and offstage like a perpetual motion machine, let you know you shouldn't overlook these guys.

With an instant and evident mutual respect, our band played with Audrey many times over the years, (leading to the pantsing incident, the sidearm beer glass throwing incident, the snowball incident, ...etc) and most weekends that we weren't playing together we were all bumping into each other at Evos Arts in Lowell, debating everything and anything about music and songwriting, until our brain cells were outnumbered by the beer molecules, causing any semblance of sane conversations to disintegrate into gibberish and chaos, until finally we all pour out of the double doors after last call, stumbling down the cobblestone, only to repeat the same process the next week.

We always had vague plans to work together on an album in some fashion. After they lost Dan, their original guitar player, I sat in on guitar with them long enough to play one show, before quitting due to time constraints. Even just from that brief stint I was taken aback by how little they had to rehearse. Ring rust never seemed to be part of the equation.

During the months that followed, Audrey minus their guitar player, holed up in their practice space, and self-recorded their 2nd album, "Incredible Belief in Lies" (Which can be downloaded for free @ www.virb.com/audreycantdie.)

Shortly afterwards, the remaining original members of ACD, which consisted of Rob Pierce (Guitar and Vocals), the Reverend Jay Boutwell (Bass and backing vocals), and Bryan Panzeri (Drums), found a kindred musical soul in John Kolakowski, who picked up his telecaster, became the III in their three part harmonies, and fit right into the mix like soy sauce in Spaghetti-O's. (Don't knock it until you try it, dickheads.)

They had a new line-up, and a new album, and were ready to go.

Having a band though, is a lot like driving an old Gremlin or Pinto. When one thing gets repaired oftentimes, something else breaks down.

Attempts to push the new album, were stunted by the sudden departure of Bryan, as he moved to California to pursue his career as a professional drummer.

ACD spent the next year sitting on their newly finished album, while they auditioned drummers that didn't make the cut. Eventually my band found ourselves homeless when our studio was shutdown, so as fate would have it we became roommates with Audrey. Their eagerness to play out again, and my eagerness to be involved in multiple projects, led to me auditioning for the spot of the drummer, and somehow getting it, despite the fact that I was not a drummer. I faked that shit real nice though, and they went for it.

I've been playing with these guys for almost a year, and they've written a new album that still makes me want to outdo them, until I remember that I am now part of the "them" in question. By the time this little bio hits the internet, my drum tracks will be done, and Rob, Jay, and John, will most likely one-take their parts and you'll soon find yourself like me, unknowingly humming these songs in public in no time.

For the moment this Gremlin is all tuned up, so keep your ears open for the new album, and your eyes peeled for the subsequent show dates that will follow.

--BA Kinnar